Feeding attachment for printing-presses



C. F. WOZNlC-Kl.

FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR PRINTING PRE SSES.

' APPLICATION FILEDJULY 9.1920. 1,372,583. I Patented Mar. 22, 1921.

'2 SHEET S-SHEET 1.

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c. F. WOZNI CKI. FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOB PRINTING PRESSES. v APPLICA'HQN FILED JULY-9. 192'0. 1,372,583. 2 Patented 11:11:22, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

cAsMnn r. woznicxnor sou ria Benn, INDIANA.

rnnnme ATTACHMENT non rnmrmernnssns To all whom it may concern: i

Beit known thatI, GASMER F. WozNIoKI, a citizen ofithe United States of America, residing at South Bend, in the county of St. Joseph and State of Indiana, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Feeding Attachments for Printing-Presses, of which the following is a specification.

The object of: the invention is to provide a paperpositioning and holding means for use as an attachment in connection with the feed mechanisms of printing presses of the Miller and analogous types wherein the movement of the blank sheets fromthe feed boxes to, and the positioning of the same upon, the platen or tympan isaccomplished separating of gripper mechanism for engaging the for ward edge of a sheet located and positioned withreference thereto by means of paper devices and advancing the sheet traversing the platen and releasthrough the agency including grippers in a path ing the sameadjacentto and in approximately proper relation with paper gages carried by the platen; and more especially to provide, for use in connection or cooperaforward edge of the tion with the grippers, a means serving to direct and hold the forward edge and front corners of the paper sheet for engagement by spring or yielding paper clips designed to receive the edges of the sheet, to guard against the possibility of such edges passing and the plane of the platen, and also to compensate sheet above the paper receiving surface of the platen by reason of the thickness of the low erj aw of the grip er, and prevent the rebounding of a sheet w en released by the grippers, due to the impact of the edge-of the sheet against the end gagesand the tendency of the sheet upon contacting with the gages; to spring back or move in the opposite direction to that in which it has been carried by the gripper i mechanism and thus remove its forward 3 trated edge fromproper zcontact and alinement with the end gages; and with these ob:

jects in view? the invention consists in the construction andcombination of parts, illusfor convenience in connection with a paper feeding mechanlsmof thetype em} ployed in the job printing presses commer cially recognized as the Miller type and constituting a preferred embodiment thereof,

, it being understood, however, that changes Specification of Letters Patent.

over the clips instead of between the same,

for the necessary elevation of the i Patented Mar. 1921.

Application filed July 9, 1920. Serial No. 394,947.

in form, preparation and details may be 3 1 resorted to within the scope of the appended claims ]without departing from the principles involvedj i a i i In the drawing: a 1 r p Figurel is a side view of a portion of a printing press structure showing a feed attachment constructed in accordance with the lnvention applied in the operative position thereto. r i

. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the platen and related parts of the press showing the position of the feeding mechanism at an inter;- mediate point in the path of its movement.

Fig. is a detail View ingperspectiveof the attachment applied. in the operative position to a gr1pper carrying bar adjacent to a gripper to show the coiiperative action thereof. I T 3 Fig ais a detail sectional view taken in the plane of a gripperand through the ad jacent portion ofthe platento indicate the POSltlOIl of the forward edge of the paper sheet as carried thereby.

Fig.6 is a similar sectional View taken in the plane of the attachment to showthe manner inwhich the 5 adjacent portion of the forward edge of thesheet is positioned thereby in contact with the upper surface ofthe platen. i i j Fig. 6 is a detailftransverse section show ing the forwardedge of the paper sheet and the position ofthe same as determined by the gripper and theattachment with relation to the clip for holding the side edge of the sheet when positioned upon the platen.

Fig; 7 is. a detail bottom planview of the bearing memberof the presser foot.; M 5 h ;Fig. 8; isa detail in perspective of the positioning fork. r r Fig. 9 is an enlarged sectional View of the shank holding head.

nated generally as 10 is shown in connection withaprinting press having a bed 11 above which is located the inking plate or disk 12 traversed by the inking rollers 13, a platen or tympan l tconnected with the frame of the machine by linklfi and movable toward and from the bed upon whichcare located the type chases, the feed box 16 in which the stock of paper is arranged preparatory for printing, the delivery box 17 in which separating the printedsheets are deposited by the delivery mechanism represented by the fork 18 having the delivery grippers 19, a sheet mechanism represented in the drawing by a suction member 20 movable toward and from the plane of the top-most .sheet in vating the forward edges of the sheets into 10- the feed box for successively eleposition for engagement by] the grippers of'the feed mechanism, and a'paper feeding device having the gripper carrying bar 21 supported by Tacks 22 and having mounted thereon the grippers 23 of which the movable and fixed jaws 24 and 25 are adapted asin the ordinary practice for separation to receive the front edges of the separated sheets as they are successively presented by theaction of theseparating mechanism at the limit of the" return 'movement of the paper'feeding mechanism in the direction indicated by the arrow in F ig; 1. In connection with the gripper carrying bar and grippers of which any suitable or preferred number may be'carried' by said bar, according tothe character of the work, the width ofthe sheets to be fed, and the like, there is employed the'usual gripper actuating bar or element 26, movable by mechanism well known in the art, and therefore not specifically illustrated herein, for alternately opening and closing the gripper jaws to respectivelyrengage a sheet V to Figs. 4 and 6,

i 4 upon the "29 of the platen by' at'the feed box and release the same when it has been positioned upon the platen.

It will be noted, particularly by reference thatthe engagement of the forward edge of the paper sheet shown at 27 by the jaws of the gripper, spaces the said," forward edge slightly above the plane ofthes'urface of the platen 1d, and although Y typeit is usual to so of the grippers as torelease the sheet under such conditions and insuchrelation to the end gage blocks 28 of the platen as to cause the edge of the sheet'to be'ar'uniformlv against and lie in alinementcwith'said gages, for lateral adjustment to and contact with the side gages the lateral positioning fork 30, commonly employed in this connection and illustrated in Fig. 2, there are conditions encountered in job printing work which defeat the purpose of such devices and arrangementsas have heretofore been adapted in this connection, and which result in an improper positioning of the sheet platen and hence the improper application of the type impressed upon the surface thereof and consequently loss of time and material in the operation of the press. For example the sheets may be slightly curled or warped, or the impact of stops 28 may cause a buckling of the sheet with the resultant rebound withdrawing the forward edge from contact with the stops to such a degree as not to be rectified by the operation of the positioning fork. loreover it is desirable in order to insure the accuracy of the work of the press to provide means such as edge clips 31 and 32, located respectively at the side and end edges of the sheet, and carried by the platen, and consisting of spring fingers or the equivalents thereof as indicated for example in Fig. 6, beneath which the edges of the sheet or between which and the upper surface of the platen the said edges of the sheet may be inserted to insure the retention of the sheet in proper relation with the side and end gages after the release of the sheet by the gripper and the necessary movement thereof by the positioning fork, and notwithstanding the fact that the press mechanism embodies the usual swinging gripper fingers 33 for movement into engagement with the sheet after it has been positioned and before the platen moves into operative relation with the bed.

Owing to the fact that the engagement of the grippers with the forward edge of the sheet in feeding the latter to its position on the platen necessitates the arrangement of the lower jaw 25 of each gripper beneath the sheet, and therefore between the forward edge of said sheet and the upper side of the .platen, it is obvious as will be seen for example by reference to Fig. (3 of the drawing, that there is a tendency to hold the sheet in such a position that the forward and side edges thereof adjacent to the corner will not pass under the clips 31 and 32 or either of them, and as a result, in the event that there should be a slight transverse curl in the sheet, the lateral action of the positioning fork will tend to push the side edge of the sheet over the side gage 21. and thus wholly disarrange the same with reference to the platen with the result that the printed matter is not properly positioned upon the sheet.

To overcome these disadvantages and. insure the proper positioning of the sheet upon the platen regardless of any distortion in the form thereof, and to insure the engagement of the end and side edges of the sheet with the holding clips 31 and 32, there is employed a vertically yieldable presser foot 33, forming a part of the attachment 10 and having an upwardly and rearwardly deflected lower bearing member 34 beneath which the forward edge of the sheet is disposed as the grippers carried by the bar 21 move into engagement with the sheet supported for that purpose by the suction element 20 of the separating mechanism, and as the sheet is drawn forward over the surface of the platen by the action of the grippers it is depressed outside of the zone of operation of the griping pers and adjacent by means of a clamp 37 to the gripper carrying bar 21 and locked for example by a thumb screw 38, said shank being fitted at its upper end with a head 39 engaged 1 with the gripper actuating bar 26 and therefore adapted to be raised by the said actuating bar after complete release ofthe sheet to insure the backward or return movement of the presser foot outof contact with the sheet and therefore without tending to disturb the same after it has been positioned upon the platen. The head 39is preferably provided with a shouldered recess 40 providing a stepped bearing for the edge of the actuating bar 26 so-that when the gripper carrying bar reaches the limit of its paper positioning movement, and the actua'tmg bar 26 tilts to raise the movable jaw'24 of the gripper to release the forward edge of the sheet, said actuating bar will have lost motion with relation to the retaining member 10 embodying said presser foot 33, and

a of the platen after the disengagement thus leave the presser foot in contact with the edge of the pa er sheet after the re lease of the latter y the grippers. The presser foot in other words will be permitted by gravity to drag upon the surface of the sheet for a short distance as the grippers continue their advance movement to clear the sheet and thus will counteract any tendency of the sheet to rebound and will insure the retention of the forward edge of the sheet in engagement with the end clip, 32 and in contact with the end gages 28 to avoid any rearward floating of the sheets due to air which may be between the sheet and the surface of the platen. The retaining member thus acts to permit the settling of the forward edge of the sheet upon the surface of the grippers therefrom and durlng the withdrawal of the lower jaws of the grippers from their positions and between the sheet and the surface of the platen. Obviously the continued movement of the actuating bar 26 in the elevation of the grippers so as to permit of the return movement of the latter without coming in contact with and disturb ing the sheet will also raise the retaining member to an extent sufiicient to pass over the sheet and permit of the return of the feeding mechanism .to the initial position for engagement with the succeeding sheet at the feed box, such succeeding sheets havingin the meantime been positioned by the sheet separating mechanism for engagement by the. grippers. s i i It will be noted that the retaining device is designed tobe applied as an attachment to the standard elements of a commercial type of printing press without necessitating any alterations in the construction or arrangement of such elements, as a means of supplementing the. operation of the grippers in the positioning of the sheets and as a means of overcoming the insufiiciencies of the grippersas now employed to insure a uniform positioning of the sheets upon the platen to the end that the inconvenience and losses in cidental to the operation ofsuch elements may be avoided, and inorder that the operation of the retaining membermay be regulated to suit the thickness of the sheets which are being handled, the head39 thereof is ad justably connectedwith the stem or shank 35, as by threading the same thereon as in: dicated at 31, so that for example when tis sue. paper is being positioned by mechanism, the presser l. foot may be relatively lowered to insure the contact thereof with the sheet until after a relatively greater movement of the actuating bar 26has occurred, the bearing of the presser foot upon the sheet being due to gravity incidental to the weightof the retaining member including the presser foot, shank, and head, sup plemented primarily by the actuating bar. 26 but independently thereof when the movement of said actuating bar to open the gripper takes place, so that the downward pressure of the foot 34 is gradually reduced as the same advances and prior to the complete removal of the foot from contact with the sheet.

Having described the invention, what I claim as new and useful is:

1. A sheet retaining member for the feed mechanism of printing presses, having a actuated presser foot for holding the forward edge of the sheet in contact with the surface of the platen during its approach to the end gages and means whereby the pressure of said foot is gradually re duced prior to disengagement from the sheet.

2." A sheet retaining device for the feed mechanism of printing presses having a presser foot for contact with the upper surface 'of the sheet, a shank carrying the presser foot, and a guide for the shank provided with a clamp for detachable engagement with a gripper carrying bar, said shank being provided with a head for engagement by the gripper actuating element.

3. A sheet retaining device for the feed mechanism of printing presses having a presser foot for contact with the up or surface of the sheet, a shank carrying the presser foot, and a guide for the shank provided with a clamp for detachable engage- I gripper actuating bar.

I gripper and having i surface of the'presser foot therewith. 4:. A sheet retaining device for the feed mechanism of printing presses having a presser .foot for contact with the upper sur face of the sheet a shankcarrying the presser foot; anda guide for the shank provided With a clamp for detachable engagement with a gripper carrying bar, said shank being provided-with a head for engagement by the grip-per actuating element and having a stepped seat for engagement by said 5. The combination with the gripper of a printing press feed mechanism, of a retainer having a yieldingpresser foot movable in a path parallel with the gripper and bearing upon the-upper surface ofvthe sheet engaged by the gripper for retaining said sheet in contact with the surface of the platen. d Y v 6. The combination with the paper sheet gripper of a printing press feed mechanism, of a retaining member arranged adjacent toand movable in a path parallel with the a presser foot yieldingly impelled toward the plane of the platen and provided with an upwardly defiected rear end.

7 The combination with the paper sheet gripper of a printing press feed mechanism, of a retaining member arranged adjacent to and movable in a path parallel with the gripper and having a presser foot yieldplaten and a bearing member extending in rear of a transverse line through the paper engaging members of the gripper.

. 8. The combination with the paper sheet gripper of a printing press feed mechanism, or" a retaining member arranged adjacent to and movable in a path parallel with the gripper and having a presser foot yieldingly impelled toward the plane of the platen and a bearing member extending in rear of a transverse line through the paper engaging members of the gripper and provided with a corrugated paper contacting surface.

9. The combination with the paper engaging gripper of a printing press feed mechanism of sheet engaging clips carried by the platen, and a retaining member movable in a path parallel with the gripper and between the same and said paper engaging clips and having a. presser foot yieldingly impelled toward'the plane of the platen for holding the edge of the sheet in contact with the surface thereof.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

CASMER F. \VOZNIGKI.

inglyimpelled toward the plane of the 1 

